I read one of the posts about someone having a little trouble with their charging system.
On my 94 Dakota, 4x4,auto, etc... I was cleaning the main charge wire on the alternator, when I gently moved the field wires out of the way, I noticed this

And this is a blow up,

Where one of the previous owners', mechanic, was checking for power ? Whom ever almost severed the wire. Then I noticed this----->

It looks like half the wire bundle has thier plastic jackets molded to gether. Besides the bare wires? I guess I know what I'll be doing for the next several hours. It's already 6:21 PM PST. I missed some sleep last night(well, I only got about 3 hrs) So maybe this is a tomorrow job. Ha, Ha! DONT need an engine fire!
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Yep, I see some wires that got hot, and melted, definitely need to fix that.

 

When I bought this hunk of love, that wire bundle was sandwiched between the intake and the Alternator and A/C compressor. I pulled it up on top of the intake about last September, then for 1st time the temp gauge would register the engine warming. I didn't pay it any mind till I looked at the power wire coming out of the alternator. Now I have found some of the wires on the driver's side have melted. Well, actually, the wires are fine; it's the insulation that melted together. I haven't found any wires melted or broken. I guess the only reason it didn't short out was because of the plastic wire protector.
Some of the wires need to be replaced from one side to the other. Mostly, I just cut and crimp back together, removing a short piece of wire. I've pulled both sides of the loom apart, looking for some slack. I have to remember to slide a piece of heatshrink on before I crimp the other end. Someone must of distracted me a couple of times.
I haven't soldered wires together for quite a while, so I cheated a little and used crimp splices.

 

I have bad luck with soldered connections in my truck (they are brittle and subject to vibration cracking) so I just crimp using good butt connectors (with heat shrink) and the proper tooling for crimping. Crimping, done properly, is still a high quality connection. I also use harness wrap around all my harnesses and especially those laying on hot parts. Can be a bit of a pain but I'm sure it has saved myass.

Something like this.

 

I've done a lot of soldered and crimped connections. Crimp wins hands down for simplicity, ease of use and time. I've used a TDR to find broken wires, a crimp connection will always show a return blip, and very seldom will a solder joint show anything. A soldered joint will normally have lower resistance than a crimped connection. If the wire is properly supported, so it can't flex much,
I have several types of crimpers, ratchet type and the other type, Oh, Yeah, Its that other type !!

I've used this type since the 80s.

I cant figure this type out, I keep smacking the crimp but it doesn't crimp very good. Maybe a case of old dog can't learn new tricks?

 

I'm OK with crimped ends ... if the new tool is not working as expected, I would go back to the old school crimp.

I always thought solder and shrink tube is best .... and listening to others arguments, I'm now a confirmed crimper

First thing, airplanes who have the strictest safety standards while being built .... must have crimped fittings for 2 reasons. .... probably a lot more ... 2 are good enough for me.
1, solder wire connection may look good ... they can not actually test it.
2, the solder wire creates a rigid connection on the soft flexible wire .... with extended hours of vibration, the rigid solder can start to crack and actually break off.

What the aerospace industry requires is a hydraulic type crimp tool that basically guarantees a quality specked crimp every time ... not cheap for a average user.

I use a old school crimp tool ... I always remove the plastic covers on the connectors if they have one.


Would be easier to buy connectors without them ... the ones I have found are too thin and cheap, I will not use them. So I strip the covers off.

Then when I crimp, I crimp straight down to lock it in place ... you look at the sides and there is a gap ... so I turn it sideways and crimp it down and tighten it up ... turn it back and straight down again ... usually that is enough.
But I tug on it and inspect it ... and crimp it some more until I'm satisfied with it ... then slide over the shrink tube and finish it off.

I have repaired a few wiring harness like this ... takes time. On my 1993 Dodge Caravan, the harness passes over the exhaust manifold and gets heat damage ... when I repaired that area, I doubled up on the heat shrink for heat protection ... did a better job tying the harness up out of the way ... same with the stupid starter wire on a chebby truck .... doubled up as it passes by the exhaust.

Just know, if you are crimping, you are following aerospace industry standards

 

You can spend the time now, or, spend time later troubleshooting interesting electrical problems.

 

Which is it ? Hand crimping is aerospace industry standards? Or is hydraulic crimping aerospace standards? Or just crimping whichever way you do it.
Actully that doesn't really matter. You crimp cause its easy to do, quick, and any other reasons you want to include!

My experience is different.
In the 1980s, NavAir had specified that soldering was preferred when properly secured. It was accepted to use a crimped connection. (Since then it might have changed) There were a lot of places that had to be soldered, no room for a crimp or crimper. We did a lot of crimping and soldering, roughly 40/60. We didn't have a hydraulic press, but we did have a nico press for crimping #6 wires. About 20% of the gripes were caused by a broken wire, (broke inside the insulation) a recessed pin or a crimped connection failing. We never had a soldered connection fail. Of course, any time you allow the wire to vibrate, as in movement, too much, it will fail. Through work hardening if nothing else. When I mentioned the wire was properly secured, it was against plus or minus 10+ Gs, multiple times per flight, multiple times per day. The vibrations aren't small vibrations.

I've found more bad crimped joints than soldered joints. If it's really bad, it will drop enough voltage to be found with a DVOM. Like where a crimped joint wasn't sealed, and moisture/acids permeate the joint. The stuff migrates down the wire strands and past or under the heat shrink to the crimp, and sometimes solder seals it out.

That crimper I use, I have to be really careful not to make a hole in the crimp sleeve covering. Which then I have to patch. I was crimping some # 20 wires today and that crimper doesn't go small enough. A pair of vise grips worked.

On my Dak, I'm slowly pulling the extra wiring from the engine harness. Hopefully, I'll have only the passenger wires on the passenger side and move all the driver side wires to the drivers side. This includes the transmission wires. And not have any wires across the front. That will reduce the size of those 2 looms and make it easier to cover them.

 

Fair enough ... my terminology might be exaggerated .... I have gotten a lot of help in another forum for electrical work. I have a 49 Dodge truck, that needed complete rewiring.
Seriously, it needs 3 wires to run ... a couple more for lights and charging .... not like making a wiring Harness from scratch for your vehicle ... Be happy you have something to rebuild and not start over.

I still am not a electrician, I did have to learn some stuff along the way ... and I had several people help. On the other forum, 2 different people who helped .... one was a electronics engineer .... they both own 2 seater Cessna airplanes ... is this considered Aerospace? .... they both told me their electrical had to be crimped. They have a quality hand held gear driven tool ... like a ratchet .... where you squeeze and release and with little effort it applies a set amount of torque and then stops ... like a clicker torque wrench. .... no this is not hydraulic, the mechanical gears do increase the pressure .... Every factory automotive harness I have worked on, has crimped ends ... I imagine automobile wire harness manufacturers would have a hydraulic crimp tool.

I'm only saying, I fully expected to solder all the connections when I built my new wire harness ... with the information on the subject I absorbed .... crimping is fine and preferred ... some places solder is needed.

My current daily driver I bought as a project truck for $2K ... owner could not fix a charging issue ... He had the right idea and crimped a new end on the wire that comes from alternator to battery ... He never squeezed the crimp tool hard enough and was a loose connection.
Since that did not fix it, he got frustrated and sold it cheap ... this is where crimping gets a bad reputation ... the process is fine, the guy that did it was not paying attention and it failed.

When you suggest your crimp tool did not fork well on 20 gauge wire, but vice grips did ..... you're paying attention.

Another guy that has helped me with my wiring issues, he is a electronics technician and got trained in the navy 40 years ago ... today he maintains electronics on windmills.
His 1952 Dodge wiring harness, he soldered every joint. .... no way is right or wrong.

 

On the Caravan, I had to repair a couple harness ... terrible design.


They run right over the top of the exhaust .... really no good way around it.
I crimped all the ends and I have a assortment of shrink tube sizes .... we typically only use 2 different sizes .... so to use up all the extra larger sizes, I doubled and sometimes tripled the shrink tubing as the wires pass over the exhaust.

Another trick I learned, I bought a cheap universal wiring harness from Amazon for $50 ... A complete 12 circuit system .... the fuse box was terrible and I cut it off and threw it in the trash.
The wiring is actually decent automotive wiring with all the wonderful different colors ... enough to wire a older car .... modern cars have 2 miles of wiring installed.
But a cheap way to get multi sized wires in different colors. ... when you start buying it by the roll at local parts store ... limited on colors and $10 a roll.
The other day, I saw a universal harness on Amazon for $35 .... I still have a lot of new wire left over from the harness I bought. I used some of that to repair the Caravan in photo .... cheaper and nice to have around.